Star Brigade: Resurgent (Star Brigade Book 1) (44 page)

“Aye, Ensign.” In the background Khrome bellowed something like, “I don’t have to take this!”

Liliana had to know, even if it was second-hand info. “Liddell, what’s going on up there?”

“You didn’t know?” Liddell’s accented voice sounded surprised. “Nwosu is in a gigantic throwdown with Khrome, Commander D’Urso and Captain Ishiliba about secretly recruiting a Cybernarr.”

Liliana gaped uncomprehendingly. “A
Cybernarr?
”

“Keep it down!” Liddell’s voice was a harsh whisper. “Nwosu enlisted a Cybernarr to join the Brigade. That’s all I know. Okay, we’re approaching Hollus dock, Liddell out.”

Liliana felt like her head was about to burst. A Cybernarr? One of the most feared races in the galaxy? She massaged both temples wearily. “I can’t deal right now.”

The smooth thrum of the
Phaeton
landing jolted the doctor to her senses, just in time to prepare for the Hollus Maddrone medical operatives that flooded the cargo bay. Once again, Liliana fell into the role of Dr. Cortes, intuitively directing the traffic of the medics’ floating gurneys. The miners were easily moved onto them, out of the cargo bay and down the
Phaeton
exit ramp in one long procession. Liliana walked slowly at the rear, taking in her surroundings. The docking bay was awash with numerous starbase and UComm operatives merging around the
Phaeton
.

Dr. Simony elbowed his way to her side, firing off a barrage of questions about the miners’ conditions. So immersed in her role, Liliana barely even recalled her answers. They must have been correct because he nodded proudly and hurried toward the medics. From the corner of her eye, she caught sight of Tyris and V’Korram exiting the
Phaeton.

V’Korram bristled in visible annoyance at the throng of sentients around him. The Kintarian easily weaved through the masses with amazing deftness for his size. Tyris was like his icy exterior; remote and unreadable, trying with less success than V’Korram to move through the crowd. No sign of Khrome, Habraum, Sam, Honaa or the mystery Cybernarr.
A Cybernarr.
Liliana shuddered.

Tyris was less than a metrid away as he met up with V’Korram near a cargo bay exit. Liliana started toward them to ask about this Cybernarr incident. A cold, hard slap of reality stopped her in mid-stride.
V’Korram was right.
Mama was right. Captain Nwosu knows it too.
Liliana had no place on Star Brigade. The doctor had let herself get caught up in something new and exciting, never considering if she could handle its tougher elements. Today’s mission proved indisputably that.

Exhaling noisily, Liliana headed to where she could actually make a difference. The Medcenter. At least Dr. Rynaar Simony still believed in her, as they spent the better part of an orv reviewing the mining station victims. “I must say, Liliana. I am thoroughly impressed with how you treated these patients,” the Xyobic doctor beamed, his ear fronds wriggling with pride. If not for the medics and medroids speeding back and forth down the Medcenter aisles, Simony seriously looked ready to execute a cartwheel.

Liliana stood beside Simony, feigning a smile. “Just doing my job, sir.”
The only part I do right,
she thought.

“Which has been superb in my book!” Rynaar excitedly slapped Liliana’s back with his two right arms, nearly bowling her over in his enthusiasm. “The way you used the synaptic cleanser to reduce the output of neurotransmitters as opposed to just cleaning out the excess synaptic impulses was brilliant!”

Simony beamed at the rows of filled beds on either side of him. Each patient wore neurostimulator headgear, with various medics and medroids bustling around to check. “And we did it all by ourselves,” he mumbled through his smile. Simony prided himself in Hollus Maddrone’s small but capable Medcenter staff.

“I’m going to finish the correspondence for the patients, Dr. Simony.” Liliana rubbed her upper back gingerly. The Xyobic nodded approvingly. Liliana quickly maneuvered around a supply-carrying medroid and ducked into her office, a perks of being a full-time doctor on staff. Once behind its plasteel doors, the doctor slumped into her seat. Treating all those patients had just drained her. Liliana sighed as she straightened out the scrubs that she had changed into half-an-orv ago.

She dropped her hands to her sides and stared at the ovular holoscreen floating above her desk.  The San Ysidro Medical Insignia, a myrypose superimposed against the Winehorn Mountains, filled the screen. Liliana had prepared a TransNet call straight to her Galdorian ex-boss—right before Dr. Simony had barged in to compliment her work. All she had to do was press the connecting button on her console and request Dr. Hashliol. Liliana had already begun to mentally rehearse what she was going to say.
“Dr. Hashliol. I made a mistake….”

The holoscreen abruptly switched off and vanished. Liliana frowned and requested the screen to turn on. Nothing. The console was dead. “What just happened?” Liliana stood and ran her hands all over the desk console’s dull, flat surface searchingly.

She glanced through her plasteel windows at the sea of patients and the medics watching over them. With the aisles free, Rynaar actually executed a cartwheel.

Liliana did a double take, but at the window reflection.

Someone, in the office with her—
behind
her!

Liliana whirled around and stood looking up at a statuesque, golden-skinned Amazon with long fiery-red hair. This female looked like a walking adflash for bodysculpting. Her aquiline face and cerulean eyes gave off a predatory nature, too detached to be human.

How this Amazon snuck in without Liliana noticing was just one of many fears assaulting her brain. The doctor tried backpedaling and ended up slamming the back of her legs into the desk. Wincing, a terrified scream started bubbling up out of the doctor’s throat….

…until a silvery hand clamped over Liliana’s mouth.

Dios mío!
Liliana silently winced as her legs slammed again into the edge of her desk. Then she got a good, long stare at the arm connected to the metallic hand over her mouth.
Whoa!

This female’s whole right arm was an arresting tapestry of silvery, detailed cybernetics fluidly blending into the golden skin at her shoulder, truly a marvel in xenobiomechanics. Then Liliana wondered why the hell her mind was even heading that route, especially in her current predicament!

The female brought a finger to her own mouth, signaling for silence. Her eyes bore frigid daggers into Liliana’s brain. “Your screams are unproductive, Dr.  Cortes.” The female’s voice had a flat, mechanical timbre. She slowly lowered her non-cybernetic hand back down. “They cannot hear or see you. I have placed this room in privacy mode.”

Liliana’s bowels nearly liquefied.
She knows my name?
And her voice—the doctor
knew
that voice.

The cyborg noted the recognition. “It was me you heard in the VanoTech mines.”

Then, a startling fact occurred to the trembling doctor. This was the Cybernarr that Captain Nwosu recruited into Star Brigade.
A Cybernarr.
Liliana’s terror increased a thousandfold.

“You were about to contact your former employer, correct?”

How—?
Liliana didn’t even try to rationalize how she knew that and just said, “Yes.” But the Cybernarr’s hand still covered her mouth, muffling her answer. All of a sudden Liliana’s shame surmounted her terror.

“Because you feel that you lack the necessary fortitude and combat skills to perform field duties with Star Brigade?”

Liliana nodded awkwardly. “Why?” Marguliese dropped her cybernetic hand from Liliana’s mouth. Her cerulean eyes penetrated into the doctor, more disquieting even than Captain Nwosu’s gaze.

Liliana rubbed her jaw. “If not for you….” She trailed off, not knowing what to call the Cybernarr.

“Marguliese.”

Liliana stared at the female, who stood about three inches taller than her. She never knew Cybernarr had actual names. In fact, the doctor hadn’t expected something so…human-like.  “If not for you,
Marguliese
, I would’ve died. I froze out there.”

The Cybernarr arched an eyebrow. “Fear is a natural humanoid reaction for those untested in combat, especially since today marked your first live field operation.”

“But my teammates are relying on me
not
to be afraid,” Liliana answered bitterly. “And cowards have no place on Star Brigade.”

“Which can be remedied with training,” Marguliese replied. Her mechanical, monotone voice never changed inflection. Not once. “From my viewpoint, your maximal talents effectually turned the tide of the conflict, correct?”

“It might have—.”

“Yes? Or no?” Marguliese demanded flatly.

Now that Liliana recalled, things did turn out better after she used her powers. “Yes, it did.”

“Then you must work assiduously to become an indispensable asset on the field. Your sonic discharge talent has measureless potential, Liliana. Do not let an ephemeral setback discourage you.”

Liliana stared at Marguliese.
What is she, a walking thesaurus?
“Y-you don’t look like a Cybernarr.”

“Sorry to disillusion you,” Marguliese said with a dryness that could parch one’s ears off.
“Now,” the Cybernarr gripped Liliana by the shoulders and spun her around to face the plasteel doors of her own office. “Observe these patients currently in the Medcenter.”

Medics and medroids still darted through the aisles to check on the patients. But now the Medcenter was more subdued. Rynaar snapped off yet another cartwheel, almost colliding with a medroid.

Why is she showing me Simony’s acrobatics?
Liliana turned to ask that to Marguliese.

“
Observe
.” The Cybernarr grabbed  and jerked Liliana’s chin rather forcefully in the direction of the Medcenter patients. “Your proficiency saved these patients from permanent brain damage. Habraum selected you for a reason. Do you still feel valueless to your team?”

Habraum. Odd hearing anyone other than Sam casually call Captain Nwosu by his first name. “You’re right.” Liliana felt somewhat better. “Thank you, Mar—?”

“Save it,” Marguliese cut in abruptly. “Illustrate your gratitude by bettering your skills and your self-assurance in the field.” The short digitized noise chirped again, startling Liliana back to reality.

She turned. Marguliese was gone.

Liliana shook her head, her brain still processing what had just happened. A
Cybernarr
in her office—and she, a doctor, didn’t ask to examine her for research?  “Stupid!” Liliana slapped her forehead and eased back into her seat. Suddenly, her desk console hummed back to life, holographic viewscreen and all. The San Ysidro Medcenter TransNet logo came back on the floating holoscreen, tempting her to come back. For a long while Liliana sat with fingers steepled under her chin, mulling her future.

Going back to San Ysidro would be so easy. But she knew where that easy path would lead.

Nowhere.
Liliana took another long look at the San Ysidro logo on her viewscreen, and said, “Abort San Ysidro Medical connection.”

“Connection aborted,” her console replied politely. “Goodbye.”

The San Ysidro logo was instantly replaced by a gold Star Brigade logo spinning slowly.

25.

Khrome yelled. Sam shouted. Honaa, freshly healed, ground his needle-like teeth in hostile silence. Habraum Nwosu stood before the firing squad of his teammates’ fury on
Phaeton’s
bridge, suffering it all in silence. He wondered if previous Senior Executive Officers had to endure such bile to their orders.

Let them get it out of their system
, Habraum told himself patiently,
then explain again
. Everyone still wore their battle-stained field uniforms, which Habraum felt made the scene a tad ridiculous.

They had every right to be angry,
especially
Khrome, but he’d expected a day or so to sell his divisive strategy for bringing the Cybernarr onto Star Brigade. Right after Habraum had introduced Marguliese on the VanoTech mines, Khrome had to be restrained again—from attacking
him
.

Marguliese had hitched a ride on
Phaeton
, mercifully staying on a separate part of the ship until they reached Hollus Maddrone. Yet in her absence, the atmosphere had grown hotter than a planet’s core.

“I can’t believe you recruited a Cybernarr and kept it from us!” Sam cried, her face twisted with fury, oddly increasing her allure. “I mean, a CYBERNARR?!”

“That thing and its ilk killed my progenitors!” Khrome roared, his usual humor gone. “Culled my species like chaff!” His compact, silvery form quivered with barely contained wrath, ready to explode…a scary thought. “After what they did to you during the War, how could you do this?”

“Have you forgotten Alcaide and Dayssspring?” Honaa hissed from his crouched pose near the comm station. While the most subdued of Marguliese’s detractors, the Rothorid’s tone suggested he’d rather be struck by a comet than let Marguliese into the Brigade. “Over 3,000 casssualtiesss…their remainsss left floating in ssspace like flotssam.” Habraum scowled, having no taste for that recollection. The Galactic Union populace and government alike had watched in helpless horror as the Technoarchy mercilessly destroyed two UComm Ferronos Sector outposts back in 2391, Alcaide Research Station and Dayspring Observation Outpost. That had been meant as a warning for the Union not to get involved with the Thulicans. Thus, the Ferronos Sector War had begun in blistering earnest.